1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of controlling a pointer in a mobile terminal having a pointing device, and more particularly, to a method of controlling a pointer, such as changing between a pointer mode for activating a pointer and a search key mode for deactivating the pointer, in a mobile terminal having a pointing device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Computer input devices, such as a full alphanumeric keyboard and a mouse, are seldom used in a mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone and a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), due to their limited space. A simple button-type keypad is generally used as an input device of the mobile terminal. However, the keypad has a limited number of buttons and movement of a focus or a cursor (hereinafter, “focus”) being controlled in a display unit in response to a key input is limited also.
A touch screen, a scroll wheel, a touch pad, a trackball, and an optical jog wheel have been developed as input devices of the mobile terminal. Among these input devices, the touch pad, the trackball, and the optical jog wheel are pointing devices using a pointer similar to that of a mouse.
The pointing device controls movement of a pointer being displayed on a display unit according to a user input. The pointer may freely move with little restriction of a moving direction, unlike the restricted horizontal and vertical movement directions of a conventional focus. Therefore, the pointer correctly operates according to a user's intention and improves a user's convenience. However, the pointer may sometimes induce user confusion, because it may be used together with the conventional focus.
A display screen of the mobile terminal is much smaller than a monitor screen of a computer, and the focus and the pointer occupy a relatively large portion in the display screen of the mobile terminal. The pointer often covers a menu, content, or input characters displayed in the display screen of the mobile terminal, and thereby induces user inconvenience. Further, if the pointer and focus are displayed simultaneously in the display screen, visual confusion may be induced.